Editors’ Summary: This paper studies a common tool for researchers to share their quantitative or data sources: the data repository run usually by university libraries. These repositories allow users to download datasets that researchers have curated. This paper provides a helpful glimpse into the user identity and persona of researchers working with data repositories. They find a repository’s ability to develop trust with scholars is a more important asset for a library than traits like having robust functionalities. Amid funding cuts at university library systems across the United States, this paper also shows that operating a repository remains a critical function in library science.
Editors’ Choice: The Repository of Last Resort? Exploring the Role of Institutional Repositories in the Data Repository Ecosystem through Researcher Perspectives
